Fielding "weakened" teams in the FA Cup

[SCIAG]

Reading wrote off their chance of getting anything from this game when they played a reserve team

Complete lack of respect for the competition and they got what they deserved

Big shame for Reading's excellent support today, i can't believe that with no game for 6 days before today, and no game for another week that this was necessary.

I would be very pissed off to see my team go out of the cup for lack of putting out a side with a chance of winning the game

It had a good chance of winning the game.

Adam Federici- goalscorer extrodinaire.

Graeme Murty- club captain, one of the best right backs in the league
Andre Bikey- easily the best centre back in the league, good enough for a top half PL team if he stops showboating
Alex Pearce- future PL defender
Julian Kelly- good performances in the reserves, deserves a chance

James Henry- in the first team at best, on the bench at worst
Jem Karacan- has first team experience, future first teamer
Marek Matejovsky- Czech international, played at Euro 2008, our most technically gifted player
Bobby Convey- remember him?

Leroy Lita- remember him?
Shane Long- good impact sub

It's not like we put out our under eighteens.

[Shortbread]

Not picking on you Branfoot Out (great user name!) but does anyone seriously want to make comparisons with what Coppell did as a player thirty years ago with what happens in football now? Does anyone seriously believe that the Newcastle side that won the cup in 1950 played the same game as the Tottenham side that won it in 1981? That's the same timeframe as what we're talking about here...

Football has moved on and we're talking here like it hasn't. So are Reading a different side to the one of 30 years ago, and our needs as a club have changed with it. As a supporter, I'd love the club to take the cup seriously - I want us to win every game. But I can see why they don't and on balance I'd much prefer us to use this sort of game - remember, practically the worst draw we could get (an away tie against a good team in our League) - for the learning experiences it offers both to those selected and to those on the management side.

In terms of the match, yes, probably too many changes for the team to win the game because there would be an inevitable lack of cohesion - but the management team will probably have not been looking at that but at the individual performances of those in it and no doubt made some important decisions about what needs to happen both in the January transfer window and in the League games between now and May. We don't know that it will pay off - like we didn't know that it wouldn't pay off last season - but hopefully it will.

Oh - and if anybody wants to know what happens to the league form of a club involved in a Cup run that goes all the way, I'd have thought that we as fans were the last set that needed reminding of how a club can get distracted by Cup games, to the detriment of league form, given what happened on the final day of last season...

[RoyalBlue]

Reading wrote off their chance of getting anything from this game when they played a reserve team

Complete lack of respect for the competition and they got what they deserved

Big shame for Reading's excellent support today, i can't believe that with no game for 6 days before today, and no game for another week that this was necessary.

I would be very pissed off to see my team go out of the cup for lack of putting out a side with a chance of winning the game

It had a good chance of winning the game.

Adam Federici- goalscorer extrodinaire.

Graeme Murty- club captain, one of the best right backs in the league
Andre Bikey- easily the best centre back in the league, good enough for a top half PL team if he stops showboating
Alex Pearce- future PL defender
Julian Kelly- good performances in the reserves, deserves a chance

James Henry- in the first team at best, on the bench at worst
Jem Karacan- has first team experience, future first teamer
Marek Matejovsky- Czech international, played at Euro 2008, our most technically gifted player
Bobby Convey- remember him?

Leroy Lita- remember him?
Shane Long- good impact sub

It's not like we put out our under eighteens.

But how motivated were the management and hence this team to win the game?

Question to those who attended the game, did any management or players show real passion and look like they really cared?

[Southbank Old Boy]

Reading wrote off their chance of getting anything from this game when they played a reserve team

Complete lack of respect for the competition and they got what they deserved

Big shame for Reading's excellent support today, i can't believe that with no game for 6 days before today, and no game for another week that this was necessary.

I would be very pissed off to see my team go out of the cup for lack of putting out a side with a chance of winning the game

It had a good chance of winning the game.

Adam Federici- goalscorer extrodinaire.

Graeme Murty- club captain, one of the best right backs in the league (His first first team run out for months after coming back from a series of injuries)
Andre Bikey- easily the best centre back in the league, good enough for a top half PL team if he stops showboating (POTENTIALLY the best centre back in the league but also one that can't hold down a place in our first team)
Alex Pearce- future PL defender (Future first team player maybe, but still our fourth choice centre back and one that hasn't even been at the club for how many weeks. as for PL quality, will have to wait and see on that front but the key word would be future and I'm pretty sure the game was played in the present)
Julian Kelly- good performances in the reserves, deserves a chance (maybe deserving of a chance but not being hung out to dry in a disorganised mix match of a team)

James Henry- in the first team at best, on the bench at worst
Jem Karacan- has first team experience, future first teamer (still 5th choice central midfielder though)
Marek Matejovsky- Czech international, played at Euro 2008, our most technically gifted player (most technically gifted yes, most effective and best partner for young Jem? no. The midfield was woefully unbalanced against a good Cardiff pairing of Premiership target Ledley and Rae)
Bobby Convey- remember him? (I remember him, he was good three seasons ago but hasn't been able to stay fit or win a place in the team since)

Leroy Lita- remember him? (would he have started if we needed to win this game for league points? He's a perfectly capable player at this level but is he really motivated to do it for Coppell and Reading? doesn't seem to be)
Shane Long- good impact sub (not the best recommendation for a player starting the game is it?)

It's not like we put out our under eighteens. (but it's also not like we played anywhere near our full strength team or a cohesive and balanced team capable of beating one of the better sides in the Championship)

Some of the individuals could rightfully play in our strongest side and have a decent chance of winning away at Cardiff (although I have some serious question marks over spin above) but the TEAM we put out, cobbled together for a one off game not having played together before and not being in form or full fitness was on a hiding to nothing against a side that we failed to beat twice whilst going flat out for a win in the league.

You can't dress it up any other way than we put out a weaker side than we could have done and we seriously reduced our chances of getting something out of the game by doing so.

[eleventh earl of mar]

Shortbread, You are right in saying that it is almost impossible to compare football now to thirty years ago, however, as a professional footballer they should be able to play a full season without feeling too tired. Footballers today should, in theory at least, be a lot healthier and fitter due to the advancement in training, diet and general lifestyle that they live.The principle of a manager wanting to play his best team should not have changed. I would like to think that the players, as professionals would want to play in every game.

[Southbank Old Boy]

I would like to think that the players, as professionals would want to play in every game.

To be fair to them I think the majority of our players would love to play every game

[Deathy]

Anyone using the word 'good' with 'Shane Long' deserves to be shot.

[eleventh earl of mar]

I would like to think that the players, as professionals would want to play in every game.

To be fair to them I think the majority of our players would love to play every game

Hopefully it is all of them not the majority. Anyone who does not want to play should not be a professional.

[Shortbread]

Agreed EEoM (70s Genesis fan, by any chance?) - and I think most professionals do want to play every game (though this is not quite the point I was making). Harper certainly, Doyle probably (though he's always noticeably less effective on a Saturday when he's been playing for the RoI in midweek); the younger ones trying to break in would want to take any chance they get (you would hope!). Others I'm not so sure about: some strike me as not wanting to play in so many games (perhaps they've also bought this one, though if I was offered the same wages but with another day off, I'd probably take it!). But sometimes it's mental tiredness that needs to be guarded against. I suspect that it's not so much a case of resting players because of physical tiredness as a result of playing so many games, but to stop them becoming jaded. That's not a problem that particularly concerned players in the 50s, or the 80s for that matter, but it seems to be more of an issue now. Perhaps old footballers were just mentally tougher, but I do suspect the stresses and strains of modern football, which includes being subject to detailed analytical criticism of your performance in every single match, does make it more difficult to get yourself across the white line every Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday....

[Southbank Old Boy]

I think the game has moved on massively since players played more games, both physically and mentally, but I still think that our players should really be able to handle the number of games over a season

If they need resting I dont think FA Cup 3rd round games, when we dont have midweek games either side of it and the Christmas program wasnt as challenging as it often is, is the way to go

[cmonurz]

Adam Federici- goalscorer extrodinaire.

Graeme Murty- club captain, one of the best right backs in the league
Andre Bikey- easily the best centre back in the league, good enough for a top half PL team if he stops showboating
Alex Pearce- future PL defender
Julian Kelly- good performances in the reserves, deserves a chance

James Henry- in the first team at best, on the bench at worst
Jem Karacan- has first team experience, future first teamer
Marek Matejovsky- Czech international, played at Euro 2008, our most technically gifted player
Bobby Convey- remember him?

Leroy Lita- remember him?
Shane Long- good impact sub

It's not like we put out our under eighteens.

Excellent. Let's start with them all against Watford then.

Here's a stat - Kevin Doyle (our best goalscorer) has not played in a cup tie for Reading for pretty much two full seasons, when he played in the replay against United in round 5 (which was his only apearance in our cup run that season). Ridiculous, imho.

[Avon Royal]

Really pissed off about our cup "strategy". Feel like we're always cheated out of a dream that fans of any other club get to enjoy.

You never win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.

[SpaceCruiser]

Just out of interest does anybody else think that Coppell will now play weakened teams in some of our league games?
He certainly did against Southampton and look what happened-2 points dropped.

You don't seem to have a clue why he did that. Two games in three days.

[papereyes]

Anyone using the word 'good' with 'Shane Long' deserves to be shot.

You just did.

Maybe next season, they could play the fans team?

[Franchise FC]

Fair play to Cardiff - played their strongest side and got their just desserts.

Indeed - and last season their players and supporters had the experience of a lifetime because they take the competition seriously.

And in 05-06 and 06-07 the Reading supporters had the times of their lives because we took the league more seriously then the cup.

[papereyes]

I did just have a pair of thoughts:

1) How much of the negative press is that when we started this approach to the cups ('05-'06 iirc), no-one nationally really knew who our players were and it was harder to make media inches with such a story.

2) There's no story to be written when we do well with a second team (United 1-1 then narrow loss, Birmingham and West Brom the season before).

[Royalee]

Interesting to see a lot of top flight teams fielding strong teams this weekend - coincidentally these are the teams which seem to be performing well in the league like Liverpool, Chelsea, Villa, etc.

[Thames]

I posted the following on a similar thread:

I think its scandalous that we make so many changes for the FA Cup.

It disrespects the cup for a start but as a fan we are paying a fair amount of money to watch a reserve team. If that was at home yesterday, I imagine our ticket prices would have been similar (£15 adult) when a normal reserve game is a couple of quid or FREE to season ticket holders.

FA Cup games (when playing such a second string team) should be adults for a fiver, kid for a quid.

[Dirk Gently]

What says it all to me is that when a team is 1-0 down in a Cup tie, if they seriously wanted to win it they would not have made the substitutions they did make. Kebe coming on was Ok, but the other two substitutions weakened the team rather than strengthened it - giving the message that the result doesn't count, the sole aim of the exercise was to give as many players as possible experience.

At least in past Cup games we've had a sprinkling of "real" first-teamers on the bench and brought them on to chase the game (e.g. last season v Spurs we brought on SHunt, and the year before vs Man Utd we brought on Little & Lita). This year there wasn't even the slightest pretence of wanting to win.

[SCIAG]

<snip>

Perhaps "good chance" was the wrong way of describing it, but it wasn't the "no chance" the Cardiff fan claimed it was. Of the 11 players out there today, 10 had made appearances in the league, and the other one would have if he had have been fit. Bikey and Matejovsky don't play for us because they don't fit into our system, Pearce, Karacan and Henry are all potential first teamers, Long and Lita have scored goals against better sides than Cardiff, as has Convey.
True, there are very big question marks about the team's understanding, but claiming that the players weren't good enough to win the game is strange. When the side was announced, several posters said they wouldn't mind that XI starting a league match (though I'd call the selection of Kelly into question).

And it's not as if every other side picks the strongest side possible. They don't.